With favorable horror projects like Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring under his belt, filmmaker James Wan has built a reputation as a strong mind in the realm of cinematic horror — and his latest spine-tingling horror film, Malignant, helped to rejuvenate his unique and spooky storytelling. Now, the gifted director has revealed that the possibility of a sequel is more probable than initially expected.
In the 2021 film, after a series of tragic events, Seattle native Madison is eventually forced to come to terms with Gabriel, her parasitic twin brother, who seeks to cause irreversible damage. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Wan explained that he rarely goes into his movies with the intention of creating a sequel based on the events in his original film — but remains adamant that if there is more of the story to tell, he will steer towards the direction of a sequel.
“That’s pretty much what I do from the very start, and not so much thinking that, ‘Oh, there’ll be a sequel for this,’ but I try to, with all my films, I try to have an idea of what the bigger world would look like, the umbrella universe, if you will. That way, when I make this particular film, I know what is happening at every moment of the film, at every moment of the storytelling, if you will.”
Because I know the bigger world that the story takes place in, there are potentially other stories to tell, and that usually is dictated by what the audience wants. If they want more stories, then I have more stories to pull into it. That’s my approach, even all the way back to my first film with Saw, is I do know the bigger world, like [writer] Leigh [Whannell] and I knew the bigger world, and if we were fortunate enough to tell other stories, we have stories ready to tell.
In the aftermath of Malignant’s release, audiences were left stunned and speechless during the film’s mind-boggling final act. Of course, that didn’t keep the movie from receiving a new lease on life with online streaming platforms. Following the movie’s success, eagle-eyed fans have been yearning to see if Gabriel will make a return to the silver screen, and according to Wan himself, hope is very much alive.